MSI GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z 11 GB

[W1zzard]

Lightning is MSI's flagship card for the GTX 1080 Ti Series. Our review of the Lightning Z, which is the highest-clocked variant, confirms it has the best cooler of all GTX 1080 Tis; delivering lowest temperatures and lowest noise at the same time. The Lightning Z is also the fastest GTX 1080 Ti we ever tested, but it isn't exactly cheap at $999.

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[FreedomEclipse]

@W1zzard

I dont think a 'high price' can be classed as a negative... This is the 'extreme enthusiast high end' we're talking about, It should come with a pricetag to match. To expect it to cost anywhere near 'affordable' like $300 would just be stupid.

You want the best? you gotta pay for the best. Its like walking into a lamborghini showroom and saying the price is too high....

Ever walked into a 5 star hotel or restaurant & tell them their prices are too high??

 

[M2B]

@W1zzard

I dont think a 'high price' can be classed as a negative... This is the 'extreme enthusiast high end' we're talking about, It should come with a pricetag to match. To expect it to cost anywhere near 'affordable' like $300 would just be stupid.

You want the best? you gotta pay for the best. Its like walking into a lamborghini showroom and saying the price is too high....

Ever walked into a 5 star hotel or restaurant & tell them their prices are too high??

Best ? 3 degrees lower temperature and same max core clock of other flagships in market and 250$ price difference isn't reasonable at all.
and I Agree with wizzard , 2 8pin connectors was enough.

 

[trog100]

@W1zzard

I dont think a 'high price' can be classed as a negative... This is the 'extreme enthusiast high end' we're talking about, It should come with a pricetag to match. To expect it to cost anywhere near 'affordable' like $300 would just be stupid.

You want the best? you gotta pay for the best. Its like walking into a lamborghini showroom and saying the price is too high....

Ever walked into a 5 star hotel or restaurant & tell them their prices are too high??

the "too high price is a negative".. its a comparison with other 5 star hotels not 2 star hotels.. for what it is the high price is a negative.. it will put most potential buyers off.. it certainly would me..

trog

 

[FreedomEclipse]

the "too high price is a negative".. its a comparison with other 5 star hotels not 2 star hotels.. for what it is the high price is a negative.. it will put most potential buyers off.. it certainly would me..

trog

But the fact of the matter is you're looking to stay in a 5 star hotel anyway so you can obviously afford it.

Here in the UK an MSI Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X is priced at $966 anyway. its not cheap but slightly cheaper than paying an extra $34. not a big difference.

 

[intelzen]

this price is too high and is a negative, because if you compare it with others custom gtx 1080 ti's - why waste 250$ for nothing? if you are an enthusiast and have spare 250$ then there is ton of things to waste 250$ on your PC and even if that all is set - I mean stuff that money in the piggy bank (will thank your present self later), buy your self a pink boots, or pay your mom a SPA trip or whatever makes you happy - just do not give that money to someone who sells you "enthusiast grade" something and offers nothing more than you could get for 250$ less.

 

[Frogger]

"considering the board weights almost 3 kilos."

They should have included a support in the package.

 

[Ubersonic]

It should be yellow and black, this doesn't look like a real lighting, just a chubby quicksilver

 

[warup89]

I justifice the price of the card if it yields superior performance. But charging more for something that performs as much as a cheaper card? No thank you.

If you're going to spend that kind of money wait on the k|ngp|ng as it claims to reach 2100 clocks on air apparently. Then again I might be wrong, I heard that a long time ago in some video with the kingpin guy himself IIRC.

Overall, the 1080 ti's won't overclock as much for most of the part, so it's basically coming down to looks and cooling at this point.

 

[Raptor_i]

As long as it stops at the same ceiling ( performance and thermal ) as other cards then that $250 isn't justified at all maybe $100 more at it's best for the extra bios and VRM , I'd give 9.2 for the price alone .

 

[Ja.KooLit]

1,380 USD here in korea. Bwahahaha

 

[Fx]

It's a nice card; I just can't see myself paying $1000 for a single card even if it is top of the line. Sure, I like the best of things and yes I have the money, but at some point, the threshold for a reasonable price has been exceeded.

 

[prodigyX]

Can't wait to get this card.. it launches in my country (South Africa) in a week or two. Pity about the price here: $1,187.00 - I've already paid a 50% deposit to reserve it so those damn miners don't get their grubby paws on it first..

 

[hapkiman]

Always loved the Lightning versions, but I must say I'm not liking the overall look of this card so much. It just looks a little plain Jane to me. I guess I was just used to the yellow and black look. But otherwise its a monster of a card. Thanks for the review.

 

[the54thvoid]

Prices are relevant. I learned my lesson from my past 980ti custom and bought the cheapest MSI 1080ti FE and put it under water. It runs at about high 40's at 2038MHz (completely game stable) with obviously low noise in a small case.
I decided in advance that buying a more expensive custom was not good sense. Also, we're all techy so (most) people who tend to buy discrete cards have an idea what they're doing.

What I would love @W1zzard to do is flip that bios switch and see if the OCP removal allows higher power consumption on air, or if it's purely LN2. The Kingpin card was designed that way, even water cooling didn't do much. These over engineered cards seem to be expensive toys that only serve their intended purpose on far below sub zero cooling.

Edit: I am fully aware that's what the over-engineering is for (sub zero) but when some folk buy it expecting it to be faster, it's a costly lesson. And I knew what my kingpin was for when I bought it. I just wanted one for the hell of it.

 

[Enterprise24]

Nice review. Can I suggest 2 things ?
1.OC performance. I think BF3 2560x1440 may come close or already hitting CPU limit. It is time to move to 4K.
2.Nvidia card should use Zcash to benchmark mining performance.

 

[Prince Valiant]

@W1zzard

I dont think a 'high price' can be classed as a negative... This is the 'extreme enthusiast high end' we're talking about, It should come with a pricetag to match. To expect it to cost anywhere near 'affordable' like $300 would just be stupid.

You want the best? you gotta pay for the best. Its like walking into a lamborghini showroom and saying the price is too high....

Ever walked into a 5 star hotel or restaurant & tell them their prices are too high??

It can and should be a negative. Premium products should be criticized for weak points and failings just the same as standard. Not grilling it for costing more than every other variant and barely outperforming them is generous, if anything.

 

[W1zzard]

I think BF3 2560x1440 may come close or already hitting CPU limit. It is time to move to 4K.

Nope, I carefully ensure that's not happening

 

[XiGMAKiD]

A new page explaining the components used in the card, I like it

TPU review is getting better with time, great job W1zzard

 

[Th3pwn3r]

I see no reason to buy this card over Gigabytes Aorus GTX 1080 ti, I'm sure it's just as fast if not faster. When you guys tested the Gigabyte 1080ti you were on older drivers. For some reason, all your frame rates across all video cards were lower back then. What could have changed? Sure you're using the same test setup to test all cards or did the results from other cards come from different test setups? To show what I'm talking about-

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1080_Ti_Lightning_Z/13.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_1080_Ti_Xtreme_Gaming/13.html

Using Doom as an example you can see what I'm talking about. Why are ALL the frame rates higher in the MSI 1080 results? Could it be just improvements on Doom's end?

 

[mcraygsx]

At this stage it is better to wait for VOLTA. They are asking too much for same old Pascal chip for what is being offered. Might as well as go but TITAN for same price.

 

[coolernoob]

Nope, I carefully ensure that's not happening

are you carefully ensuring that 4K is not happening?

 

[W1zzard]

Using Doom as an example you can see what I'm talking about. Why are ALL the frame rates higher in the MSI 1080 results? Could it be just improvements on Doom's end?

No idea. It's a new OS install, with Creators Update, new drivers.

 

[Warrgarbl]

"considering the board weights almost 3 kilos."

They should have included a support in the package.

Actually, this made me wonder, so I looked it up. MSI lists the package at ~3kg, but the card at ~1.7kg, so I think this should have been pounds and not kilograms. For a 3kg card the cooler would probably have to be made of depleted uranium or something

 

[W1zzard]

you are right, just measured at 1700g, fixed the review